This time there was no blood on the tracks. But there was a sly flexing of muscle, a psychological show of strength. Chris Froome has been accused of riding like a robot; of subjugating animal passions to his power meter. But on the testy ascent up the Côte du Salario, the final climb of Sunday's thrilling 156km second stage from Bastia to Ajaccio, Froome danced away from his rivals for the yellow jersey – including Alberto Contador and Cadel Evans – like a cavalier.

It meant little – at least in terms of general classification, although it did earn Froome a point in the King of the Mountains competition. Having caught up with the Frenchman Cyril Gaultier, Froome slipped back into the peloton's glove on the descent. But he has shown his rivals that the bookmakers are right: he is the man to beat during these next three weeks.

"I knew the descent was tricky and dangerous," said Froome. "I was on the front with Richie [Porte] and I thought it might be a good time just to push on a little bit, get ahead and take the descent at my own pace and stay out of trouble."

There was a smile, too, as he added: "It's always good to keep people on their toes."

For now, though, the yellow jersey rests uneasily on the bony shoulders of Belgium's Jan Bakelants. The Radioshack rider was part of a group of six that half-heartedly slipped the peloton in the final few kilometres but, while others hesitated with a kilometre remaining, Bakelants seized his chance.

It was a damned close run thing. We have become used to the peloton, looming like a great white shark to a swimmer, swallowing up a lone rider in the final few hundred metres but not this time. A final grunt and turn of the wheels ensured Bakelants held on by a second from Peter Sagan.

The result was a bitter blow not just for Sagan but for David Millar, who would have worn yellow at the ripe age of 36 if the Slovak had got his man. But Bakelants, having seized the day, deserved his moment.

"On the radio they shouted 'go, go, go!'" said Bakelants afterwards. "I saw at 500m that I still had a decent gap, and I said, 'Come on, hold this: it is going to be the nicest day of your life' and I did it. When I crossed the finish line I was so overwhelmed.

"Today it's probably the first and last time I will wear the yellow jersey. It's incredible."

The Belgian will perhaps give a wry smile when he hears of the moment, 4km from the finish, when a small white dog scampered across the road, before hastily reversing just in time to avoid the peloton. It could have led to further carnage on the road, following the large crash on Saturday's opening stage which left several riders nursing painful, festering sores.

Froome's Team Sky colleague Geraint Thomas, who was still hurting after flying over his handlebars on Saturday, struggled to the finish 17min 34 sec behind the peloton and is now 198th and last of the riders in this year's Tour.

"It felt like I was out there for an eternity," he admitted. There had not been much sleep overnight either. "It's mainly [hurting] when you are bending or pushing it – like riding your bike.

"I remember flipping straight over and landing straight on my back," he recalled. "I didn't slide or anything, so it was a difficult fall. It wasn't like I was in a bad position. I didn't think it was really bad as in broken bones. But it took a while to get up."

Another of the peloton's riding wounded, Tony Martin, also managed to complete Sunday's stage, although the fact that he even started it was something of a miracle given that he twice lost consciousness after crashing on Saturday and suffered a bruised lung as well as injuries to his hip, left knee, shoulder and a 5cm gash in his elbow.

Mark Cavendish, Martin's Omega Pharma-Quick Step team-mate, finished with him. The Manxman's tour is not going to plan either but at least the only bruises are to his ego. A recent switch to hydraulic brakes may well have stopped him going over his handlebars.

He did, however, make a legitimate point on Sunday, tweeting to the UCI: "I'd love an explanation from UCI Cycling as to why time was neutralised on yesterday's stage, but not points. Were only GC riders affected?"

Meanwhile Garikoitz "Gary" Atxa, the Orica-GreenEdge driver who wedged his team bus in the finishing arch of the 213km first stage, thus starting the chain of events which led to the crash, blamed bad luck and the organisers for what happened.

"When I arrived at the finish line I saw that it was a bit low, but they said, 'Avance, avance!'" he said. "I saw that the others had passed before me, so I did exactly the same thing; but it was bad luck that it [the finishing arch] was a little low and what happened happened.

"The team were kind and sympathetic and I'm grateful for all the nice things they said and what else can I say but I'm sorry."

Fortunately for the riders all the drama in Sunday's stage was kept to the tarmac, with the Route des Sanguinaires – the bloodthirsty road – that marked the finish in Ajaccio not living up to its billing.

• This article was amended on 2 July 2013 to correct a breaks/brakes homophone.

About this article

Tour de France 2013: Jan Bakelants wins stage as Chris Froome thrives

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 16.26 EDT on Sunday 30 June 2013.
A version appeared on p11 of the Sport section of the Guardian
on Sunday 30 June 2013.
It was last modified at 19.41 EDT on Wednesday 21 May 2014.
It was first published at 11.38 EDT on Sunday 30 June 2013.